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I have some wobbly fence posts - not rotten, just not buried deep enough by the contractor - the soil is soft and prone to water retention. In the past, I have used concrete repair spurs to steady wobbly posts, but where we are there are no merchants within driving distance who sell them, and...

Our house is of block and render construction on the main house and brick on the extension. The house and extension are at least 30 years old and of cavity construction with no insulation in the cavity. We are looking at adding insulation and are having conflicting advice as to which way to...

Has anyone any experience in using smooth masonry paint on radiators. We have a large amount of masonry paint left over and the colour would be ideal for freshening up our radiators - but not sure if it is likely to be any worse than using an interior matt or silk interior paint rather than...

We inherited an alarm system when we moved into our house a few months ago. The previous owners overlooked to leave us the instructions/codes for the system and we have been unsuccessful in getting any information out of them. The system is a Texecom Premier Elite 48-W for which I have found...

We have a double garage (5.5m x 5.5m) attached to the side of the house. It was built as part of the work to renovate the house about 3 years ago - we bought it 6 months ago. The garage has a roller shutter door and with conversion to a room in due course planned by the previous owner. - the...

We have a drive that was originally laid to tarmac but is so old that it is now 'breaking' up - I think because it was never top coated as the surface is very rough. My questions are - Could it just be 'top coated', and would doing so create any problems with lifting as the current surface is...

I have some questions regarding external wall insulation and wonder if anyone has had an experience of insulting external wall post-build. - Is injected cavity insulation any good, and if so what are the likely costs for an average 3-bed detached house Which estimate between £500 and £700, but...

We are moving house soon and at the next property there is a garage 5.5m x 5.5m in floor area. The floor is made up of a concrete slab which is very poorly finished and although suitable for a garage it is not really smooth enough to make a decent workshop floor. There is plenty of room to raise...

It is common to have internal motion sensors that wirelessly send a signal to set off an alarm siren when the alarm is set and motion is detected. Does anyone know of a similar type of remote sensor that can send a signal to a controller which turns on lights instead of setting off an alarm? Or...

We have a lean to conservatory with a glass roof consisting of 7 double glazed glass panels fitted at no more than 20 degrees of horizontal. The panel in the middle has stated to leak water at the wall end. This only happens in heavy long rain showers and when there is a wind. From outside I can...

At the back of our garage we have a large area which is not really used apart from storing junk. I thought of clearing it out, then partitioning of the area to use as an office/work space - which would not be used constantly, maybe just for a few hours every few days. The walls are block/render...

We have a Hotpoint Aquarius FDF780. A couple of weeks ago when it had finished the programme the dishes were not clean. We turned it off overnight and tried again the next day and all was well. It washed perfectly a few times over the next fortnight until yesterday when it failed to wash once...

Has anyone used a washing machine motor to build their own sanding disc/belt. There are numerous videos on youtube showing how to undertake this but I wonder if anyone has experience of how reliable such a unit would be. The other question - the videos all relate to using a brushed motor, but...

I have a spare 1200mm wide window and thought about fitting it to the back wall of our detached garage for extra light. I believe planning permission is not necessary but wonder if I have to seek building control to do the work. Can anyone confirm one way or the other? Thanks

It has been a while (about 10 years) since I had to do any exterior metal paintwork - and I am looking for some advice. We have a Garador Garage door which still has on it the original black paint applied at the factory and is about 3 years old. We decided we wanted to change the colour to...

I am trying to locate a die to cut a thread the same as that used on my cars (a Lexus) towing hook. Apparently all car manufacturers use different threads and not even the Lexus dealers can tell me what thread is used on mine. Using a caliper I have measured the thread diameter and pitch and...

We have a Vaillant gas combi boiler which was in the house when we bought it from the developer in 2017. It worked fine up until late December 2019 when it would intermittently make a noise when the heating was fired up by the stat - the hot water was fine when called for by either water being...

I have a Makita 18v LXT li-ion cordless drill which has suddenly stopped working. The battery is fully charged but there does not appear to be power getting to the brushes. I am wondering if it could be something to do with the sensor (labelled FET in the attached schematic) which is attached...

Can anyone explain why it is that a major laminate flooring supplier says that electric u/f heating 'may' be suitable to use with the laminate flooring they supply - but to check with the u/f manufacturer - BUT - electric u/f flooring suppliers say their systems are ok for use with laminate...

We have a new house built a couple of years ago which has a large set of French Doors to the garden. On the same wall as the French Doors there is a 1200mm x 1200mm window with full height wall in between. We are considering installing Bi-fold doors and wonder which of these scenarios (if any)...